THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Power Elites: The Merger of Right and Left
A. K. Chesterton once said: "The proper study of political mankind is the study of power elites, without which nothing that happens could be understood."
He added: "These elites, preferring to work in private, are rarely found posed for photographers, and their influence upon events has therefore to be deduced from what is known of the agencies they employ."
Chesterton described those agencies: "Their goal was to work through such agencies, and financial support received from one or other or all three big American foundations--Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford -- provides an infallible means of recognizing them."
The Rockefellers made $200,000,000.00 from World War I. Henry Kissinger's brother Walter heads the Allen Group. The super-wealthy (with the exception of some Du Ponts and the Fords) have long supported the Republican Party -- the party of plutocratic oligarchy. "If not kings themselves, they are king-makers." They have quick access to the White House no matter who is President. Other super-rich, such as the Rockefellers, affiliate with the Democratic Party. Politics in the U.S., no matter what party, is under the control of the super-rich, large corporations and the international bankers.
A.K. Chesterton said in Candour: "At times Capitalism and Communism would appear to be in conflict, but this writer is confident that their interests are in common and will eventually merge for one-world control. That policy outlined previously in Woodrow Wilson's Point Six has never been dropped.
"Capitalism and Communism, in terms of power, are merely their twin mechanisms to destroy the sovereignty of Christian nations. They will merge them into the projected super-state, where their financial power will exercise full sway and masterdom through that monopoly of atomic energy which is being sought with such feverish and fiendish persistence. They are selling us into slavery and using our material resources for their own nefarious world-wide purposes. To say that in exposing their plans for world domination we are playing the Kremlin's game is to act as an unconscious agent of Christendom's betrayal." (1)
Paul Weyrich is considered by conservative Powers That Be as the most powerful man in American politics today. Weyrich allegedly founded the immensely influential conservative think tank, Heritage Foundation, in 1973 with funding from Joseph Coors of the Coors beer empire and Richard Mellon-Scaife, heir of the Carnegie-Mellon fortune. (2)
Over the past 25 years, Heritage has also been funded by private foundations such as Pew Charitable Trust which also funded many GOALS 2000 initiatives. William Greider's bestseller, Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy reveals other benefactors: "Not withstanding its role as 'populist' spokesman, Weyrich's organization, for instance, has received grants from Amoco, General Motors, Chase Manhattan Bank [David Rockefeller] and right-wing foundations like Olin and Bradley." (3)
Paul Weyrich served as President of Heritage Foundation until 1974 when he founded the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress (which he heads today as the Free Congress Foundation). Heritage Foundation guided the Reagan administration during its period of transition and Joe Coors served in the President's "Kitchen Cabinet." During its first year, the Reagan administration adopted fully two-thirds of the recommendations of Heritage's Mandate for Leadership: Policy Management in a Conservative Administration.
John Saloma's Ominous Politics, refers to Heritage as a "shadow government" noting that "[Heritage President] (Edwin) Feulner also served on the Reagan transition executive committee (fourteen other Heritage staff and board members also had transition appointments), but declined to join the administration." (4)
A 1995 Wall Street Journal observed the formidable influence of the Heritage Foundation on government policies since the Reagan era:
"WASHINGTON -- With the Republicans' rise to control Congress, think-tank power in the nation's capital has shifted to the right. And no policy shop has more clout than the conservative Heritage Foundation."When GOP congressional staffers met in June with conservative leaders to help map current legislative efforts to cut federal funding for left-leaning advocacy groups, the closed-door meeting took place at Heritage headquarters. The group's involvement wasn't unusual. 'Heritage is without question the most far-reaching conservative organization in the country in the war of ideas.' House Speaker Newt Gingrich said early this year."Think tanks have long churned out studies that have wound up in official policy proposals. During Democratic times of power, the more liberal Brookings Institution has been a leading player here. Now, the 21-year-old Heritage Foundation, which rose to prominence in the Reagan years, is taking academic involvement to a new level."Over the first 100 days of the current GOP Congress, Heritage scholars testified before lawmakers 40 times--more than any other organization, Hill staffers say. Its scholars are credited by congressional members and staff as key architects of the House-passed welfare-overhaul plan and with inspiring some provisions in the GOP balanced-budget plan. 'They talk to me sometimes 12 times a week,' said Heritage budget analyst Scott Hodge earlier this year, explaining his ties to the staff of the House Budget Committee. 'We--I mean House members--are putting together a final list of cuts.'" (5)Paul Weyrich - considered the architect and mainstay of the conservative revolution - calls for "reclaiming the culture" and a "second American Revolution." A look at the inflammatory, extremist rhetoric with racial and Inquisitorial overtones on the Free Congress Foundation web site should alarm Christians as to Weyrich's real intent:
THE NEXT REVOLUTION
"Are we on the verge of a second American Revolution? In the old Soviet Union, the government seemed all-powerful – until one day it fell."Next Revolution is one of the most radical – and most popular – programs on America's Voice. Each week, hosts Bill Lind and Brad Keena say what people are thinking but are often afraid to say: that the cultural Marxism of Political Correctness is destroying our country, that "multicultural" nations break apart in civil war, and that uncontrolled immigration and rising crime are turning America into a Third World nation. They ask the "forbidden" questions: is real reform still possible, or will a new Revolution be necessary to restore America’s traditional – and very successful – culture? Is the United States Government still a legitimate government? Is "racism" the real problem or do cries of racism arise as a result of bad behavior by minority groups?"VICTORIA "Can America in fact go the way of Bosnia? Is 'Civil War II' part of our future? Is that what it will take to rescue our culture? Bill Lind is now working to answer these questions in a book-length version of Victoria – a novel in the form of a 'future memoir' that will rock and shock the 'Politically Correct' Establishment..."She was not a particularly bad bishop. She was, in fact, quite typical of Episcopal bishops of the first quarter of the 2lst-century -- agnostic, compulsively political and radical, and given to placing a small idol of Isis on the altar when she said the Communion service. By 2037, when she was tried, convicted and burned for heresy, she had outlived her era. By that time only a handful of Episcopalians still recognized female clergy, and it would have been easy enough to let the old fool rant out her final years in obscurity. But we are a people who do our duty."I well remember the crowd that gathered for the execution -- solemn, but not sad, relieved that at last, after so many years of humiliation, the majority had taken back the culture. Civilization had recovered its nerve. The flames that soared above the lawn before the Maine statehouse that August afternoon were, as the bishopess herself might have said, liberating."[Note: Since posting our expose, the promotional for The Next Revolution has been removed on the new Free Congress Foundation web site. On the home page, About FCF states , "Each week, you can join us for "Next Revolution," the show dedicated to fighting multi-culturalism and political correctness." However, the program is not listed and no information given on the TV Programs page to which the visitor is referred.]Paul Weyrich is a Melkite Greek Catholic whose personal background abounds with ties to Nazi collaborators and neo-fascist organizations. These well-documented facts do not seem to concern the U.S. Government, whose agencies have also been infiltrated by post World War II Nazi emigres. [For documentation of the CIA-Nazi connection, please see The John Birch Society.]
In the 1970s, Weyrich and Coors made appointments and set up political contacts on Capitol Hill for Franz Joseph Strauss, Bavarian head of state who helped emigre Nazi collaborators. Another fascist, Roger Pearson, writer and organizer for the Nazi Northern League of northern Europe, joined the editorial board of Policy Review, the monthly Heritage publication, in 1977. The Coors Connection notes in a caption under an illustration of Pearson's Eugenics And Race: "Dr. Roger Pearson's racialist theories are circulated worldwide by neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations." (6)
Pearson was brought to the U.S. in 1965 by Willis Carto, founder of the neo-fascist Institute for Historical Review and the Liberty Lobby, which publishes the weekly Spotlight newspaper. Pearson left Heritage after a Washington Post expose of the fascist orientation of the World Anti-Communist League. Pearson chaired the American branch, the Council on American Affairs from 1975-80, as well as the WACL from 1978-79. The following brief mention of Roger Pearson on the British Eugenics Society web site is an indicator of his abiding contribution to pure racial breeding:
"Hans K. Gunther, a Nazi anthropologist and eugenicist... was assisted by Roger Pearson of the Eugenics Society, an important figure on the racist journal, Mankind Quarterly... Mankind Quarterly is a racist journal still pumping out venom in 1994, still influenced by Roger Pearson. Josef Mengele's co-researcher at Auschwitz, Von Verschuer, was on the editorial advisory board of this journal before his death in 1970."Paul Weyrich also sponsored and currently works closely with Laszlo Pasztor, a convicted Austrian Nazi-collaborator whose Coalitions of the Americas is housed as a subsidiary in the Free Congress Foundation, the political arm of Heritage Foundation. Martin Lee's book, The Beast Reawakens, refers to Pasztor as Weyrich's right hand man:"In addition to homegrown agitators who dredged up anti-Semitic motifs that harkened back to the 1930s, some countries had to contend with groups that were led or supported by profascist exiles who repatriated from the West where they had carried on as vocal anti-Communists during the Cold War, often with CIA support. The Free Congress Foundation, founded by American far right strategist Paul Weyrich, became active in eastern European politics after the Cold War. Figuring prominently in this effort was Weyrich's right-hand man, Laszlo Pasztor, a former leader of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross organization in Hungary, which had collaborated with Hitler's Reich. After serving two years in prison for his Arrow Cross activities, Pasztor found his way to the United States, where he was instrumental in establishing the ethnic-outreach arm of the Republican national Committee." (7)A recent SCOOP newsletter from the Heritage related National Center for Public Policy Research mentions foreign and defense policy meetings chaired by Laszlo Pasztor. NCPPR is a conservative communications and research foundation which also sponsors Wednesday luncheons frequently chaired by Weyrich and Pasztor.The 1975 Congressional investigation of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) activities in the U.S. noted a connection between Heritage and the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. was recruited in 1977 by Richard Scaife to become Heritage president, a position he holds today:
"The report of the investigation noted, 'In 1975, Ed Feulner ... was introduced to KCIA station chief Kim Yung Hwan by Neil Salonen and Dan Feffernan of the Freedom Leadership foundation.' Salonen was head of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church in the United States. The Freedom Leadership Foundation (FLF), a political arm of Moon's Unification network was linked to the World Anti-Communist League (WACL). The FLF was described as 'an organization to be used to achieve KCIA objectives,' by the Congressional report, which was based on a KCIA document that discussed FLF." (8)In the early 1980s, the KCIA began making donations to Heritage Foundation. In turn, Heritage established an Asian Studies Center which The Nation magazine of 1/23/89 states "has quartered apologists for [So. Korean Prime Minister] Chun's regime." (9)The Wall Street Journal of August 1995 does not mention Sun Myung Moon, but references the Korea Foundation, one of Heritage's largest donors and an affiliate of the South Korean government. The article clearly states that Heritage Foundation promotes and actually writes pro-Korean legislation:
"Heritage scholars, for example, have drafted specific language for legislation that would help South Korea by encouraging the U.S. to include Seoul more directly in U.S. dealings with North Korea. Meantime, one of Heritage's largest donors, the Korea Foundation, is an affiliate of the South Korean government, according to Yoo Lee, a spokesman for South Korea's embassy here. Heritage's President Edwin Feulner says he isn't aware that the Korea Foundation is an arm of their government...The Heritage offices in Washington, D.C. have housed and employed a number of Unification Church operatives:"While Heritage has gotten most of its attention on domestic issues, it also has been an active proponent for an array of trade and other policies supported by South Korea and Taiwan. Such efforts, it says, reflects "the growing importance of the Asia-Pacific community." In December, Heritage scholar Daryl Plunk provided language for a draft resolution, essentially calling for the administration to adopt a U.S. policy more in line with the wishes of South Korea, to Colorado GOP Rep. Scott McInnis. Rep McInnis, who last year was escorted on a trip to South Korea by Mr. Plunk, introduced a provision in Congress containing similar language.
"Heritage's Mr. Feulner himself has taken an active role in promoting South Korean issues in Congress through actions such as testifying before committees to promote the think tank's pro-South Korea positions. Meantime, one in six of Heritage's 24 known major donors last year -- gifts of $100,000 or more -- were Taiwanese or South Korean concerns. Over the past three years, Heritage has received nearly $1 million from the Korea Foundation which is funded by South Korea's Foreign Ministry, says the embassy's Mr. Lee." (10)
"Heritage's Director of Administration in 1980 was Michael Warder, who was a key leader of Moon's Unification network in the United States ..."Christian Voice is one Moon-connected group that has operated out of the Heritage building. A 'former' Moon operative, Gary Jarmin, attacked critics of Moon and gave an interview to a Moon-controlled newspaper after he joined the Christian Voice (CV) staff. CV's chair, Robert Grant, has been a leader of Moon's Unification network front groups such as the American Freedom Coalition, which fundraised for Oliver North." (11)In the 1970s, Richard Viguerie became the direct-mail fundraiser for Weyrich's Committee for Survival of a Free Congress. Viguerie developed the direct-mail enterprise into a mult-million dollar business which has used its considerable power to influence the election of conservative candidates for political office. During the 70s, Viguerie trained a political cadre and established, staffed, and funded new organizations, transforming the New Right into "an institutionalized, disciplined, well-organized, and well-financed movement of loosely-knit affiliates" that formed a political base for the conservative revolution of the next decade.In 1976, Weyrich, Viguerie and Howard Phillips attempted a takeover of the American Independent Party and, in the wake of failure, turned to Jerry Falwell to form the Moral Majority. When Rev. Moon was indicted in 1981 for fraud and criminal tax evasion, Falwell unexpectedly joined with other religious leaders to present an amicus curiae, (friend of the court) brief on behalf of the Reverend Moon. A 1987 Seattle Times explained "How Rev. Moon Got Ensconced with the New Right" via Paul Weyrich's network:
"Ron Godwin, an influential former vice president of Falwell's Moral Majority, is one of several who experienced a conversion.More recently, when Falwell's Liberty University was in danger of bankruptcy, Sun Myung Moon came to the rescue through one of his front groups, which funnelled $3.5 million to the Reber-Thomas Christian Heritage Foundation which had purchased the school's debt of $73 million. Ron Godwin, former executive director of the Moral Majority, and now vice president of Moon's Washington Times, accompanied Falwell to South Korea in January of 1994 for a meeting with representatives of the Unification Church."In 1984 Godwin attacked another fundamentalist leader for taking Moonie money. 'It strikes me as peculiar,' observed Godwin, himself an evangelical Christian, 'that (he) should accept financial support from a church whose founder believes he's divine . . . It's a little like the Jewish National Fund accepting money from (PLO leader Yasir) Arafat.'
"Eighteen months later, Godwin joined the Moonie-owned Washington Times as a senior vice president, where he also serves as emissary to conservative Christian leaders.
"Then there's Richard Viguerie, until recently more than $1.5 million in debt, according to Fairfax, Va., court records. They indicate that in mid-October the U.S. Property Development Corp. paid $10.06 million to 7777 Associates for the suburban Virginia office building including Viguerie's headquarters. Viguerie owned 72 percent of 7777 Associates, according to Virginia records, and U.S. Property's president is Moon's right-hand man, Bo Hi Pak.
"Viguerie now serves with Abernathy on the five-man board of the Moonie-dominated American Freedom Coalition. The coalition, which claims a 'house list' of more than 300,000 member-contributors, is also Viguerie's biggest new direct-mail client." (12)
Following the historic Reagan/Gorbachev meeting at the Geneva Summit and prior to Gorbachev's visit to the U.S. in 1986, Heritage President Edwin Feulner was appointed by President Reagan as Chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy. The Commission's report to the Congress and the President on the U.S. Information Agency and the activities of the U.S. Government concerning public diplomacy included the following recommendation for expediting a signed Soviet/American Educational Exchange Agreement:
"Exchanges and International Visitors: The Commission urges USIA, the Department of State, and the relevant private sector organizations to move quickly to develop specific programs for U.S.-Soviet exchanges pursuant to the General Exchanges accord, other exchange initiatives undertaken at the Geneva Summit, and the agreement by President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev to review these programs at their next meeting."The report stated "The U.S.-Soviet exchanges agreement negotiated by USIA and signed at Geneva will expand academic, cultural and scientific exchanges, including Fulbright scholars and teachers..." A Five Minute Report quoted Feulner as having said, "We should permit Soviet journalists to speak to American people and the U.S., in turn, be permitted to bring ideas and perspectives to the Soviets."In 1995, Charlotte Iserbyt identified conservative "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing" who not only gave the Soviets access to American education, but whose act of treason "virtually merged the two educational systems." Leading the pack for an educational exchange initiative were:
"Edwin Feulner, President of Heritage Foundation, strongly supported the U.S.-Soviet education agreements, has an office in Moscow, supports Soviet-style magnet schools (i.e., tax supported choice/charter schools), and has state affiliate organizations across the nation writing charter school legislation that reads like it has been written by the U.S. Department of Education, the Carnegie Corporation and the National Education Association..."Paul Weyrich's American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) gave an award to Oregon's Department of Education for its education reform, especially the work force training component and its certificate of initial mastery (CIM) necessary to get a job. Weyrich has served as an advisor to Russian President Boris Yeltsin of recent Chechnyan genocide fame. In 1986 he wrote an article in The Washington Post which virtually recommended a new Constitution and form of government for the U.S." (13)The Heritage mission statement describes the foundation as a "research and educational institute -- a think tank -- whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies based on the principles of free enterprise, limited government, individual freedom, traditional American values, and a strong national defense." Since Heritage claims to have never compromised its traditional values, it may surprise other conservatives that the 1993 U.S. Commission on Improving the Effectiveness of the United Nations included Edwin Feulner. A 1993 Mantooth Report revealed:
"Sixteen people, drawn from the public and private sectors, have been busy with plans to 'reinvent the world.' Not the U.S. government - it's the UN world government."The purpose of this group, a commission established by Congress, was to hold hearings and study ways to make the U.N. more effective in the post-Cold War world, and a world needing a firm hand in the 21st Century..."The membership of the Commission is a motley crew, a diverse and suspect collection of one world believers. We'll start with Walter Hoffman. He is Executive Vice President of the World Federalist Association, and co-Treasurer of the Commission."Secretary of the Commission is Harris O. Schoenberg. He is Director of the United Nations Affairs for B'nai B'rith International, and into a lot of other things. There are religionists and bankers and, of course, Jeanne J. Kirkpatrick, who needs no introduction. And there's a smattering of CFR members. And there are New Right and Sovereign Military Order of Malta..."Edwin J. Feulner, Jr. and Charles M. Lichenstein were appointed by the House Minority Leader. Feulner is President of the Heritage Foundation. Paul Weyrich was founder of Heritage, and its assortment of 'fellows' became powerful enough to issue the mandates that ran the Reagan and Bush administrations. Weyrich is strategist for all the so-called New Right organizations which he steers behind the political objectives of leaders reaching for the world."You always find Feulner in a vital position to advance these objectives. Lichenstein is a 'Distinguished Fellow' of Heritage, a long-time Republican activist who has held senior positions in the Nixon and Ford Administrations. Under Reagan he was attached to the Security Council."If you haven't already figured it out, what we've been describing here is a tight group representing the merger of the left and the right. " (14)The Rockefeller/Heritage Connection
The Council for National Policy
ENDNOTESSources:
1. A. K. Chesterton, "The New Unhappy Lords, An Exposure of Power Politics" (Hawthorne, CA: Christian Boys Club of America, 1969).
2. Russ Bellant, The Coors Connection (South End Press, 1989), p. 2; John Saloma, Ominous Politics (NY: Hill & Wang, 1984), p. 14.
3. William Greider, Who Will Tell the People: The Betrayal of American Democracy (Touchstone Books, 1993), p. 28.
4. Ominous Politics, p. 14, 17.
5. "Conservative Heritage Foundation Finds Recipe for Influence: Ideas + Marketing = Cloud," Wall Street Journal, August 10, 1995, p. A12.
6. The Coors Connection, p. 8.
7. Martin Lee, The Beast Reawakens, Little, Brown & Co., p. 303.
8. The Coors Connection, pp. 3, 4.
9. The Coors Connection, p. 6.
10. The Wall Street Journal, op. cit.
11. The Coors Connection, pp. 5, 6, 9.
12. "How Rev. Moon Got Ensconced with the New Right: His Aid is Varied and Plentiful," The Washington Times, December 31, 1987.
13. Charlotte Iserbyt, "Wolves in Sheep's Clothing," The Christian Conscience, April 1995, p. 12.
14. Don Mantooth, The Mantooth Report (RR 1, Box 387, Salem, IN 47167).